Woke was and is a good word, but I find that the left too easily dismiss you if you use the word woke. They just immediately erect a mental strawman image of you and go "oh you're one of those who still cries about wokeness".

Now I'm not saying stop using the word woke. If you abandoned every word that the left tried to recontexualize, you'd have no words left.

But I do think using the word political correctness needs to start being used again more. It's been largely abandoned in favor of woke, but saying someone is being politically correct has an advantage over woke. It's pointed and all people know that being politically correct is stuffy and lame.

I hear them go "woke is just a code word for someone who actually has empathy".

I've yet to hear them justify the term politically correct. It makes the person being called politically correct feel prudish in a way that calling them woke doesn't. If you call them woke, they sometimes wear that as a badge feeling like it makes them a champion of "justice".

When you call someone out for being politically correct, it's still got that lame quality that even the perpetually lame left hasn't been able to spin into a positive because unlike woke, you're not just saying they have upside down values. You're saying they have upside down values and they're a tiptoeing, pussyfooting, coward who adheres to strict lanes out of obedience. With being called woke they can still justify that that's who they authentically are. But if you say they're being politically correct, you're taking it a step further and pointing to them that if it weren't for society encouraging them to say exactly what they said in the exact way you're supposed to say it; they wouldn't be saying it; ie they're a drone.